Business in Vancouver's "How I Did It" feature asks business leaders to explain in their own words how they achieved a business goal in the face of significant entrepreneurial challenges. In this week's issue, Peter van Stolk, CEO of Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery (SPUD.ca) and founder of the Jones Soda Co. (Nasdaq:JSDA), describes how he joined the now-16-year-old online grocery delivery company in 2010, changed its direction and is working to keep it on a path of steady growth through creativity and innovation.
"Three years ago, we got involved in re-looking at SPUD. [At that time], SPUD stood for Small Potatoes Urban Delivery. We started to analyze what we could be that was special that would make this a unique opportunity.
"We did a lot of research in asking the tough questions to our customers and hearing over and over again, 'You guys have to get better.' What I learned is you don't get better unless you ask tough questions … and have the humility to listen to those answers.
"We had to change the name. We liked the URL SPUD – it's easy, four keystrokes and people can remember it – but small potatoes? Does anyone want to be part of small potatoes? We service thousands and thousands of customers, we don't just sell potatoes, so what are we trying to convey?
"So we changed the name to Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery. That name came from a driver out of Seattle. It was a suggestion out of the suggestion box.
"One of the things we try to do is innovate. It's now not about how much money you have, it's about how you can innovate and look at things differently.
"We now work with larger employers and say, 'Hey, here's an opportunity for your employees to get fruits and vegetables in a convenient way so they can add that to their diet.
"So we have an office program where [a company] can have fruit delivered to its office, and that's probably a better thing than having doughnuts.
"From the office program, we were then invited to larger organizations. They have committees and they put on runs and picnics and they said, 'Hey, can you help us?' So we do that. And from the health and wellness committee, we said, 'What about doing pocket farmers markets in larger organizations?' So we'll bring local produce right into their place.
"Then we said, 'OK, people are really into juicing, but juicing is a big investment and you need two things: you need the machine, and you need the produce. So why don't we create a juice club?'
"A machine goes to our customers for a weekly fee. You still have to buy produce for it, and you might as well juice organic because there is no point in juicing conventional produce that's heavily sprayed with ridiculous chemicals.
"So those are the kinds of innovations we did, and those are the things improving the company.
"In 2010, when we first started looking at it, the company wasn't in a very solid positioning. Last year we grew at a nice clip, and this year we're growing at an amazing clip." •
